The academic institution with a student body of roughly 11,000 said the addition of crypto payments was part of a plan to support local businesses like Elrond.

A public university in the Romanian city of Sibiu in Transylvania has said it will allow students to pay for their admission fees in crypto.

According to an announcement from Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, or LBUS, on Wednesday, the institution plans to implement crypto payment methods for its more than 11,000 students starting in July. Students will reportedly be able to pay for admission fees — tuition is roughly $1,000 per year for undergraduates — using Elrond (EGLD), which the university will then convert to Romanian leu.

“Our university has been and will continue to be a supporter of the community and local business, and the decision to develop this partnership with Elrond is part of this strategy,” said university Rector Sorin Radu.

Starting as an initial exchange offering from the Binance Launchpad in 2019, Elrond has offices in the Transylvanian town of more than 400,000 people and its team contains many graduates of the local university. The project said it plans to carry out other collaborations with LBUS in the future, including research.

According to legislation implemented in July, exchange providers that monitor the purchase of crypto with fiat currency and vice versa must now be authorized if they operate in Romania. Many crypto users handling digital assets in the country are required to use exchanges that incorporate Know Your Customer requirements and comply with both domestic and foreign Anti-Money Laundering provisions.

Elrond has recently seen some significant changes, including its mainnet swap last year as the ERD token became EGLD. At the time of publication, the price of EGLD is $231, having risen more than 13% in the last 24 hours.

Traders appear to be waiting for a trigger to start the next leg of Bitcoin’s uptrend and if that happens, XLM, MIOTA, XMR and XTZ could join the party.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) hesitation near the all-time high suggests that the bulls and the bears are waiting for a trigger to start the next trending move.

The bulls are searching for a positive catalyst to thrust the price above the overhead resistance. On the contrary, the bears may be standing by in anticipation of any signs of weakness that could confirm a short-term top.

The event that may act as a trigger is the Nasdaq listing for Coinbase’s COIN stock on April 14. A successful listing is likely to be cheered by the crypto bulls because that could signal increased crypto adoption by traditional investors in the future. Conversely, a tepid reception to the Coinbase listing could embolden the bears.

Onchain indicator HODL waves suggests that both the long-term investors and the short-term speculators are not booking profits as they expect higher levels in the future. An increase in the number of HODLers is generally a bullish sign but could become an overhang if fresh money dries up and the market starts to reverse direction.

If that happens, the short-term speculators are likely to panic first and dump their positions. That may hit stops of the swing traders and intensify the selling, paving way for a deeper correction.

As markets wait for a trigger, let’s analyze the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that could benefit from a bullish sentiment.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin soared above the $60,000 overhead resistance on April 10 and reached $61,301.21, just short of the all-time high at $61,825.84. However, the bulls continue to find difficulty in keeping the price above $60,000, indicating stiff resistance from the bears.

The price has yet to close above $60,000 which means the inverse head and shoulders pattern is still not complete.

The bears will try to capitalize on the small window of opportunity and pull the price down to the 20-day exponential moving average ($57,513). A strong bounce off this support will increase the possibility of a break above $61,825.84.

If that happens, the BTC/USDT pair could start the next leg of the uptrend that could push the price to $69,540 and then $79,566.

On the other hand, if the bears sink the price below the 20-day EMA, the pair could challenge the critical support at the 50-day simple moving average ($54,723). A break below this support will be the first indication of a possible change in trend.

The 4-hour chart shows the bears are active above $60,000. However, the positive sign is that the bulls have not allowed the price to sustain below the 20-EMA. This means the bulls are buying on every minor dip.

If the bulls can once again push the price above $60,000, the pair may challenge the all-time high. On the contrary, if the bears sink the price below the 20-EMA, a drop to $57,600 is possible. If this support cracks, the next stop could be $55,600.

XLM/USDT

Stellar Lumens (XLM) broke above the $0.60 resistance today and rose to a new 52-week high at $0.65. Whenever an asset hits a new 52-week high, it is a sign of strength because it shows that traders are in a hurry to buy as they expect the price to rise further.

The upsloping 20-day EMA ($0.46) and the relative strength index (RSI) in the overbought territory suggest the bulls have the upper hand. If the bulls can propel the price above $0.65, the XLM/USDT pair could start the next leg of the uptrend that could reach $0.72 and then $0.85.

However, the long wick on today’s candlestick suggests that the bears have other plans. They are trying to trap the aggressive bulls and pull the price back below $0.60. If the bulls do not allow the price to dip below $0.55, it will suggest accumulation on dips. That will keep the sentiment positive.

Contrary to this assumption, if the bears sink the price below $0.55, a drop to the 20-day EMA is possible. A break below this support will indicate that the bulls have lost their grip.

The 4-hour chart shows the pair closed above $0.60 but the bulls could not build upon this strength. The bears pounced on the opportunity and have pulled the price back below the breakout level at $0.60.

However, if the bears fail to sink the price to the 20-EMA, it will suggest the bulls are accumulating on dips. That will increase the possibility of the resumption of the up-move. Conversely, a break below the 20-day EMA may tilt the advantage in favor of the bears.

MIOTA/USDT

IOTA (MIOTA) is in an uptrend. The bulls pushed the price above the psychologically important level at $2 on April 10. If bulls can sustain the breakout, the up-move could reach the next target objective at $2.35 and then $2.60.

The upsloping 20-day EMA ($1.66) and the RSI near the overbought zone suggest the bulls have the upper hand.

However, if the bulls fail to sustain the price above $2, the bears may try to pull the price down to the 20-day EMA. The bulls have successfully defended this support since the start of the current leg of the rally in March.

Hence, if the price again rebounds off the 20-day EMA, it will suggest the sentiment remains positive and the bulls are buying on dips. Alternatively, a break below the 20-day EMA will suggest that the bears are making a comeback.

The 4-hour chart shows profit-booking above $2. The MIOTA/USDT pair could now drop to the 20-EMA, which is sloping up. If the price rebounds off this level, it will enhance the prospects of the resumption of the uptrend.

On the contrary, if the bears sink the price below the 20-EMA, the pair could extend its decline to the 50-SMA. Such a deep correction could delay the start of the next leg of the up-move.

XMR/USDT

Monero (XMR) broke above the $268.60 resistance on April 10, indicating the possible resumption of the uptrend. If the bulls can sustain the breakout, the altcoin could rally to the next target objective at $334 and then $384.

The rising 20-day EMA ($258) and the RSI above 75 suggest the path of least resistance is to the upside.

However, if the bulls fail to sustain the price above $288.60, the XMR/USDT pair could drop to the 20-day EMA. A strong bounce off this support will suggest the sentiment remains positive and the bulls are buying on dips. The bulls will then make one more attempt to resume the uptrend.

On the other hand, if the bears sink the price below the 20-day EMA, it will suggest a possible change in sentiment. That could result in a drop to the 50-day SMA ($232).

The 4-hour chart shows the bears attempted to stall the rally near the psychological resistance at $300 but the bulls did not give up much ground. They purchased the dip to the 20-EMA and pushed the price above $300.

The rising moving averages and the RSI near the overbought zone suggest the bulls are in control.

This positive view will invalidate if the price turns down and breaks below the moving averages. Such a move will indicate the demand has dried up and traders are booking profits. That could pull the price down to $250.

XTZ/USDT

Tezos (XTZ) is in a strong uptrend. It broke above the stiff overhead resistance at $5.64 on April 5 and completed a successful retest of the breakout level on April 7 and 8. The altcoin resumed its uptrend and made a new all-time high at $7.21 on April 10.

The 20-day EMA ($5.42) is sloping up and the RSI is near the overbought territory, indicating advantage to the bulls. In a strong uptrend, corrections usually last between one to three days as traders buy every minor dip aggressively.

The long tail on today’s candlestick suggests traders are buying at lower levels. If they can drive the price above $7.21, the XTZ/USDT pair could rally to the next target objective at $8.14.

The major support on the downside is the 20-day EMA. If the price rebounds off this support, it will suggest the sentiment remains bullish. The buyers will then again try to push the price above $7.21. Conversely, a break below the 20-day EMA will suggest the bullish momentum has weakened.

The 4-hour chart shows the bulls are trying to arrest the pullback at the 20-EMA. If they can push the price above $6.85, a retest of $7.21 is possible. A breakout of this resistance will start the next leg of the up-move.

Contrary to this assumption, if the pair breaks and sustains below the 20-EMA, it may drop to the 50-SMA. The bulls are likely to defend this support aggressively because the price has not dipped below the 50-SMA since March 29.

However, if the bulls fail to arrest the decline at the 50-SMA, the slide could extend to $5.40 and then to $4.60.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Bitcoin’s three-month futures premium reached a record-high of 50%, signaling market inefficiencies.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been struggling to break the $60,000 resistance for almost a month. But despite the impasse, BTC futures markets have never been so bullish. While regular spot exchanges are trading near $59,600, the BTC contracts maturing in June are trading above $65,000.

Futures contracts tend to trade at a premium, mainly on neutral-to-bullish markets, and this happens on every asset, including commodities, equities, indexes, and currencies. However, a 50% annualized premium (basis) for contracts expiring in three months is highly uncommon.

Unlike the perpetual contract — or inverse swap, these fixed-calendar futures do not have a funding rate. Thus, their price will vastly differ from regular spot exchanges. Fixed-calendar futures eliminates eventual funding rates’ spikes from the buyers’ perspective, which can reach up to 43% per month.

On the other hand, the seller benefits from a predictable premium, usually locking longer-term arbitrage strategies. By simultaneously buying the spot (regular) BTC and selling the futures contracts, one gains a zero-risk exposure with a predetermined gain. Thus, the futures contracts seller demands higher profits (premium) whenever markets lean bullish.

The three-month futures usually trade with a 10% to 20% versus regular spot exchanges to justify locking the funds instead of immediately cashing out.

The above chart shows that even during the 250% rally between March and June 2019, the futures’ basis held below 25%. It was only recently in February 2021 that such phenomena reemerged. Bitcoin surged by 135% in 60 days before the 3-month futures premium surpassed the 25% annualized level on Feb. 8, 2021.

While professional traders tend to prefer the fixed-month calendar futures, retail dominates perpetual contracts, avoiding the expiries’ hassle. Moreover, retail traders consider it expensive to pay 10% or larger nominal premiums, even though perpetual contracts (inverse swaps) are more costly when considering the funding rate.

While the recent 0.20% funding rate per 8-hour is extraordinary, it is definitely not unusual for BTC markets. Such a fee is equivalent to 19.7% per month but seldom lasts more than a couple of days.

A high funding rate causes arbitrage desks to intervene, buying fixed-calendar contracts and selling the perpetual futures. Thus, excessive retail long leverage usually drives the futures’ basis up, not the other way around.

As crypto-derivatives markets remain largely unregulated, inefficiencies shall continue to prevail. Thus, while a 50% basis premium seems out of the norm, one must remember that retail traders have no other means to leverage their positions. In turn, this causes temporary distortions, although not necessarily worrisome from a trading perspective.

While exorbitant funding rate fees remain, leverage longs will be forced to close their positions due to its growing cost. Thus, December’s $73,500 contract does not necessarily reflect investors’ expectations, and such a premium should recede.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Tech companies like Oracle, Tesla, Hewlett Packard, and now Blockcap are moving to Austin, causing many to call the state capital the Silicon Hills.

North America-based crypto mining company Blockcap announced over the weekend it would be establishing new offices in Austin, Texas.

In an announcement from Blockcap on Friday, the mining company claimed once its new facilities are operational in the Lone Star State’s capital, its hashing power will be roughly 3.5 exahash per second from a total of 42,000 rigs, reportedly doubling its capabilities. According to blockchain data, this would represent more than 2% of the hashrate for the entire Bitcoin (BTC) network, roughly 167 million terahash per second at the time of publication. However, Blockcap claims its total fleet will account for only 1% of the network’s hashing power.

“Austin is our home base from which we will pursue our mission and bring this great city closer to the center of the United States’ blockchain technology ecosystem,” said Blockcap chair and founder Darin Feinstein. “We also see the city as an ideal location from which to continue expanding our operations as we grow at both national and international levels.”

Blockcap cited electric car manufacturer Tesla setting up one of its “Gigafactories” in Austin in announcing the move. Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk recently purchased a home in the Texas state capital for more than $3 million on Lake Austin west of the downtown area, while the firm is breaking ground on the Gigafactory on the east side closer to the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

The mining company did not immediately respond to questions regarding where it plans to establish its offices in the Austin area or how many jobs would be created as a result, though Feinstein said it would be “hiring locally.” Musk said in a tweet last month that the new Giga Texas location would bring in more than 10,000 jobs, effectively increasing the number of employees at the electric car manufacturing company by more than 14%.

Though some tech companies like Oracle and Hewlett Packard are moving to Austin — causing many to dub the city the “Silicon Hills,” in reference to Silicon Valley — the state capital has in many ways become a microcosm of the U.S. housing market. Many employees of these firms may be seeing all-cash buyers purchasing homes, making them unavailable to those with only the financial means of saving for a 20% down payment. Musk highlighted the dearth of Austin housing in an April 4 tweet, seemingly in reference to Tesla employees relocating there.

However, the addition of Blockcap and other blockchain firms to the Lone Star State has the support of former Texas governor Rick Perry, the Republican politician who once famously forgot the name of the Department of Energy as a federal agency he would eliminate if elected president. Perry claimed Texas had “become the premier location for forward-looking industries like blockchain” and that Blockcap would likely lead to job creation and economic growth in the state.

Founded in 2020 by a group of blockchain veterans, Blockcap now controls roughly 12,000 mining rigs generating more than 7 BTC daily, or $416,550 at the time of publication. The company raised more than $75 million in two funding rounds led by Off The Chain Capital and Foundry Digital. According to Blockcap, the firm recently acquired more than $500 million worth of Bitcoin mining machines.

A second iteration of tBTC hopes to improve on the failings of the first.

The Keep Network has released details for the second iteration of its “trust-minimized” Bitcoin tokenization protocol, tBTC.

In an April 11 blog post, Keep Network developer, Evandro Saturnino, outlined several changes the protocol is considering to address it’s past issues with collateralization.

tBTC’s second iteration is expected to require stakers to only lock up KEEP rather than both KEEP and ETH, alongside introducing changes to its wallet generation mechanism. The protocol allows users to tokenize their Bitcoin for use on the Ethereum network.

While Saturnino notes the changes “will provide a way of greatly decrease[ing] the collateral ratio of the staking assets,” he warns of new risks associated with the proposed upgrades.

To offset a “small risk to the peg” resulting from the changes, Saturni advances uses insurance coverage pools to protect against malicious validators, describing the pools as “perfectly suited to ensure against fraud in tBTC v2.”

tBTC works with ETH collateral on a network of blockchain validators and parties that individually contribute to the minting and backing of the asset, with activity kept in check on the blockchain. Saturnino explained:

“In this mission that tBTC emerged to be the first solution to bring tBTC in the Ethereum Network in a trustless and truly decentralized way using Keep Network infrastructure which is able to store and compute data hidden even from itself.”

Once the user submits a request to mint tBTC and a deposit bond, a randomly selected signing group generates a public BTC wallet address to the user. Signing group members are picked from an eligible pool of signers who agreed to bond ETH as collateral.

The bonded ETH is an incentive to align the interests of the signers and can also be used to penalize members in the case of misbehavior. Signers must bond 150% of the total deposit size in ETH as collateral in a mechanism that is similar to the MakerDAO and Dai stablecoin system.

The developer acknowledged the team has learned a lot since the second launch of the tBTC mainnet in September 2020. Within just a few days of its initial launch in May 2020, Keep protocol was briefly shut down after a bug was detected in its redemption codes. The protocol also struggled to scale, added Saturnino.

Despite being backed by venture capital giant a16z and other big names, Keep’s tBTC has failed to gain traction among DeFi users with a circulating supply of just 1,293 tokens according to CoinGecko.

Existing Bitcoin tokenizations solutions have enjoyed significant growth and popularity over the past year, with the custodial Wrapped BTC currently ranking as the second-largest DeFi protocol with a TVL of $8.7 billion, according to DeFi Llama. Non-custodial competitor renBTC has also amassed a TVL of $926 million and currently ranks as the 27th top DeFi project.

With Binance Chain’s 11 validators hand-selecting Binance Smart Chain’s validators daily, analysts are warning of the protocol’s centralization.

Despite Binance supporters celebrating Binance Coin’s (BNB) chart-topping performance for Q1 2021, concerns are growing regarding the centralization of the Binance ecosystem.

On April 12, Messari researcher Ryan Watkins took aim at the centralization of Binance Smart Chain’s validators, stating: “Every cycle people get hoodwinked by the latest centralized solution to all blockchains problems.”

“Every cycle influencers pump these narratives so they can dump on naïve retail traders when it’s over.”

BSC uses Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA) consensus, with its 21 active validators being chosen daily by Binance Chain — a network that is governed by just 11 validators. BSC validators stake BNB.

“It’s hard not to presume that each Binance Chain validator is in some way connected or tied to Binance,” Messari’s Wilson Withiam speculated, adding: “They each take turns producing blocks in a seemingly predefined order. There doesn’t appear to be any stake-weighted mechanism to determine which one produces the next block.”

Some might overlook the influence Binance Chain has over Binance Smart Chain’s validator set.

BSC has 21 active validators, making it more centralized than most platforms.

This validator set is determined daily by Binance Chain, a network managed by just 11 validators. pic.twitter.com/UeWDj0o1DY

— Wilson Withiam (@WilsonWithiam) April 12, 2021

Watkins sought to address perceived misconceptions regarding BSC’s performance, asserting its speed advantages over the Ethereum main net are a product of “the magic of centralization” rather than “technological innovation.”

“BSC is an Ethereum fork with a centralized validator set. That’s it. Nothing more,” he added.

“If you really think BSC has achieved smart contract supremacy, and will become the world’s settlement layer, you are on crack.”

However, Twitter-user “earoshthime” rebutted the claim from Watkins and others that BSC others little more than clones of Ethereum-based DeFi legos, describing copying as inherent to technological innovation.

“When it comes to invention & innovation, copying is a feature not a bug. Copying is a sign that something there is worth exploring but it only takes one character difference to be better,” they said.“Mkt92z” also responded in defense of BSC, describing Ethereum’s recent high fees and scaling woes as driving users away to seek out alternative protocols.

“Mkt92z” also responded in defense of BSC, describing Ethereum’s recent high fees and scaling woes as driving users away to seek out alternative protocols.

Etherium needs to hurry and solve their scaling probablem that’s causing ridiculously high fees. These fees are taking too much out of peoples pockets. At some point people care more about their money than Defi.

— maurice k taylor (@mkt92z) April 12, 2021

Messari’s April 9 performance report for the first quarter of 2021 found that the BNB was the best-performing crypto asset ranked among the top ten by market cap, gaining 709% since the start of the year. BNB’s capitalization is now greater than that of major banks UBS and Banco Santander.

Solana price has rallied more than 50% this month as new projects conduct airdrops on SOL blockchain and high Ethereum fees push investors to seek cheaper alternatives.

Over the past six months blockchain projects that have issued token airdrops have re-emerged. Most notably, the airdrops by Uniswap (UNI) and MEME will be remembered as recipients were rewarded with gains ranging from $20,000 to $600,000 simply for holding the tokens.

One Ethereum (ETH) competitor that has seen numerous projects launch with airdrops in the past three weeks is Solana (SOL), an open-source project that focuses on utilizing blockchain technology to provide decentralized finance solutions.

While Solana isn’t explicitly making a concerted effort to launch these projects, the protocol’s main decentralized exchange Serum (SRM) was responsible for the recent COPE airdrop which distributed 2,000 tokens to users who participated in the joint DeFi hackathon held by Solana and Serum.

After the airdrop, COPE eventually listed on Serum for $0.50 on March 30 and the price of the token surged to a high of $5.43 on April 11, rewarding holders with a $10,860 reward.

The success of the COPE airdrop prompted a series of token launches and airdrops with similar-sounding names including HOPE, ROPE and KOPE, whose launches on the Solana blockchain have coincided with a 55% rise in the price of SOL since the start of April.

Airdrops on the network may have played a small role in the recent price appreciation due to users needing SOL to receive airdropped tokens but this is not possible to ascertain based on the available data.

Interactions on the Solana blockchain, including the addition of new tokens to the Sollet wallet, require small amounts of SOL to complete the contract executions. Thus, users rushing to sign up for airdrops before they filled up would have needed to purchase SOL and fund their wallets in order to create new addresses for the airdropped tokens.

Analysts expect the airdrop trend to continue

For those worried that they missed out or that the ‘airdrop season’ is over, a recent tweet from Solana’s Twitter feed suggests that the Solana ecosystem is just getting started, meaning the likelihood of future airdrops remains high.

☀️New Projects building on Solana@HedgehogMarket prediction markets platform@solstarterorg IDO platform@HxroNetwork derivatives protocol@cyrii_MM $COPE@StepFinance_ Position tracking@Media_FDN P2P CDN @PsyOptions options protocol@synthetify for synthetic assets$SOL $SRM pic.twitter.com/K1DN51R4DO

— S◎L mates ☀️ (@Solana_Mates) April 7, 2021

New users are the lifeblood of successful blockchain networks, and the use of airdrops continues to be one of the most utilized methods for drawing attention to fledgling projects and sapping liquidity from one protocol to another.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

It may sound shocking today, but in 2010 software developer Gavin Andresen was on a mission to give away free BTC in an effort to boost adoption.

Reddit’s r/Cryptocurrency community revived an interesting piece of Bitcoin (BTC) history on Sunday, with a new thread reminiscing about the time that American software developer Gavin Andresen gave away 19,700 BTC. 

A thread started by “uGroundbreakingLack78” took the Reddit community all the way back to June 2010 when Andresen first launched the so-called Bitcoin faucet website. Using the domain “freebitcoins.appspot.com,” Andresen gave visitors the opportunity to earn 5 BTC per day just by solving a captcha, which is a program intended to distinguish human from machine input.

User “uGroundbreakingLack78” explained:

“To fuel the first faucet, Andresen loaded it with 1,100 BTC of his own. After these were given away, the faucet was reloaded, with early bitcoin miners and whales also donating coins.”

The faucet’s creator announced his “really dumb” idea of giving away free BTC on the now infamous Bitcointalk forum in a post that appeared June 11, 2010. His motivation: “[…] I want the Bitcoin project to succeed, and I think it is more likely to be a success if people can get a handful of coins to try it out.”

Andresen played a major role in Bitcoin’s development during its formative days. He was the main software developer for BTC’s reference implementation, having joined the core development team in 2012 after Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, announced they would be leaving the project.

Although the Bitcoin faucet website is no longer functioning, a screengrab of the domain’s homepage revealed a very basic setup where users can earn BTC and set up their digital wallet. The Bitcoin faucet reportedly gave away 19,700 BTC to users just for solving a captcha. Those BTC are worth almost $1.2 billion at today’s prices.

With Bitcoin in the midst of yet another bull market, many investors would love to get their hands on just 5 BTC. However, that’s easier said than done at current values. Given the apparent shortage of BTC on major exchanges, the flagship digital currency could be poised to go higher in the short term. On-chain data reveals that Bitcoin’s moonshot could still be months away, which means investors remain overwhelmingly bullish.

The Bitcoin price peaked just below $62,000 in mid-March before the rally paused and altcoins played catch-up. At current values, Bitcoin’s market capitalization exceeds $1 trillion. Major institutions and corporations have invested in the digital asset as a hedge against currency debasement, among other motivations.